C’EST LA VIE…

Paris threatens US citizens over domain names

Paris entices millions of tourists every year with the Eiffel tower, Louvre Museum, gorgeous food and beautiful architecture. Yet the cities recent behavior does not reflect its fine, elegant image.

A recent law case saw Paris fined multiple times, in some cases up to $100,000 for sending threatening letters to US citizens who registered the domain name ‘.Paris’ and ‘.Parvi’ (Paris’s free wifi system).The United States government, top lawyers and citizens from both countries have taken sides and despite Paris being an internationally recognised capital city – it lost the case!

Darwin and Domains!

The evolution of the internet really is the ‘survival of the fittest’

As you may have seen on the news, internet crime is on the rise. Despite the US ICE recently removing 839 imitation websites for selling counterfeit products and the Ukrainian authorities seizing the world’s largest illegal music sharing site (Demonoid), recent figures suggest companies need to adapt.

Let’s take a look at this. We recently saw, credit checking firm, Experian, reveal figures suggesting online fraudsters have exchanged as much as 12 million items of personal information only in the first quarter of 2012. That’s a 300% increase since 2010! You can read about this here: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240159690/Online-identity-theft-is-up-300-on-2010-warns-Experian.

What are GTLDs?

If you are reading this, you are one of the 2 billion plus internet users worldwide. With such a large number of constantly growing internet users, ICANN (the owners of the internet) have decided to create many more website address suffixes. For instance, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com already exists but soon there could be anything from Amazon.shop to Amazon.solar or even “amazon.amazon”.

These suffixes are called GTLDs (Generic Top Level Domains) and at present there are 22 of them. In a few months however, there will thousands of them! The idea is that, although Johnsmith.com and johnsmith.biz are useful, johnsmith.law says a lot more about John’s business. So: these names are about benefiting consumers and promoting brands. ICANN opened up the internet and for the princely sum of $185,000 brands and companies were able to apply for their own GTLD for their brand.

You can see the list of successful applications and new GTLDs here.

Your Reputation is who You are...

This month the business world witnessed two disasters that made us remember the value of a company’s online reputation.

Many of you will have heard about Shells most recent catastrophe, falling victim a targeted Greenpeace campaign. If not, you can read about it here:    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/shell-social-media-oil-spill-a-coordinated-online-assassination-20120719-22bpe.html

.xxx domains – time to think about protection?

A recent case brought by Sir Richard Branson has resulted in him regaining control of richardbranson.xxx after it had been registered in Australia by Sean Truman. The decision to grant ownership of the domain to Sir Richard was taken by US based adjudication body The National Arbitration Forum.

The .xxx domain was introduced in 2011 as a home for pornography and other adult oriented sites.

The ability for anyone to register YourCompanyName.xxx or YourName.xxx, and use the domain as a host for potentially embarrassing content, could have a seriously damaging effect on your brand and your personal reputation.

Whilst Sir Richard Branson has been able to regain control of his .xxx name, most will not be able to argue that their name is protected under intellectual property law; that’s quite apart from the cost and inconvenience of pursuing a complaint.

Act now to register your .xxx domains, whilst you still can, and protect your reputation.

frankdomains.com is a no-nonsense domain hosting and management company. We offer frank advice and a highly competitive pricing structure for our European domains.

A .xxx domain from frank will only cost you £62.99 (+VAT)
compared with £79.99 (+VAT) from 123-reg!

Visit frankdomains.com today to register your .xxx domain.

What's a domain worth?

Every web service needs a domain; an address to run under, just like your house needs an address otherwise when you wanted someone to visit they would have to try to find a floating house. It's pretty hard to find stuff when you don't know where it is; so your domain is pretty important, but not very expensive. Compared to other costs of running a business then it is ridiculously tiny, just a few pounds, so small that most domain companies have to sell other things to make any profit at all. But if you lost it, then the cost would count.
Most domain owners couldn't tell you where their account details are, or when their renewal is, or who they registered with and some had a friend of a friend register it; who now isn't a friend any more and quite likes hanging onto domains.
Even though the yearly financial outlay isn't that much for even the most niche top level domain, it is a vital business asset, just like any product, service or idea you sell, so it should be treated such. Details secure. Everything in your name. And in a safe place.
Frankdomains is offering free transfers on all .co.uk domains and many other domains types, so if you haven't got your domain under your direct control, transfer it today and make it safe www.frankdomains.com.
If you're not sure how to transfer your domains, we can do it for you; just shout (or email us)
And we should introduce some special people to you; our in house domain experts Frank and Little Frank. They will be popping up on our website from time to time making domains simple to understand, to be frank...(we'll let you decide which one is Frank and which one is Little Frank!!)